Media: Dark Nebula symbol

"Hey, Riyui?"

"Mhm?"

I was in the lobby of the JCI building, using the phone booth that was installed in it. Twisting the phone's cord around my fingers, I rolled my eyes back in thought.

"When can I come to your house? I've had an exciting day."

"No kidding," she replied. "I saw your battles on TV. It was broadcasted to the area, you know."

I snorted. "Stalker now, are we?"

"I'm just keeping up with the news."

Across the room, Kato's gaze collided with mine, only able to hear my part of the conversation, and he raised an eyebrow.

My response was to wave a hand at him to signal that I was completely sane.

"You open tonight or tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I replied. "But you sound like you're coming over here."

"I am."

"Pushy."

Riyui only laughed in response, which was a high-pitched snort. If she tried to stop it, I don't know, but it was as mature as me.

So, not mature at all. Don't I just love myself?

Twirling the coil around my finger, my eyes flicked to Kato, who was waiting my call. Could you believe it? Timor Rehn appointed me ahead of him!

The thought made me smile, and almost caused me to miss Riyui's statement.

"-and I have your building pulled up on the computer. Do you mind if I come over and talk to your boss?"

"Sure thing," I said, and she hung up. I held the phone away from my ear, staring at the black handle before hanging it back on the hook.

Before Kato opened his mouth, I held up a hand. "She's coming here in...whatever minutes."

"Very informative," he responded, touching the Bey-Storage he had strapped to his left forearm.

"You're very welcome," I confidently strolled towards the doors that would lead outside when a hand on my shoulder stopped me.

Kato raised an eyebrow again, lifting his hand. "Where are you heading, Rixen? I believe it would be best if you're present when your guest arrives."

"Fine."

He just nodded in return, and I watched his retreating back, dark against the tan walls of the lobby.

"Well?"

The words caused a shudder to dance up my spine- I recognized the voice (and the creepy memory of the speaker came back) as my boss, Timon Rehn.

He ran a hand through his dark, cropped hair, staring at me through narrowed almond eyes. "You said earlier that you're going to Riyui tomorrow."

"Er, change of plans," I said sheepishly, rubbing at my neck with my right hand. When his eyes narrowed even more, I dropped my hand and got it out in a hurry.

"She's coming over here."

"She's...!" My boss groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead. "Idiot...why did I hire you again?"

"Very good question," I shrugged in response. "Why did you hire only teenagers?"

That was a lie. There were adults in the JCI, but they were more involved in the...murder investigations compared to us. Since Beyblade was the top thing in Japan for the time being, we monitored that. And it was pretty popular overall, not in just Japan. America, Africa, Europe...everywhere.

"I didn't." His response was miffed, and       my boss opened his mouth to speak before he was cut off by the doorbell ringing, the noise echoing through the lobby.

I blinked before grinning. "Guess that's her. She doesn't live that far from here, I guess."

Sure enough, when I reached the door, I could see a curtain of black hair framing ice-blue eyes through the side window. I threw open the door.

"Tess," Riyui greeted. "Nice to see you again after two days. Make any progress on my missing sister?"

I inhaled sharply, another sheepish expression taking over my expression, but Timon got there before me.

"Unfortunately, no. We have only looked into the list of suspects that may have actually captured your sister."

She cocked her head, shoving her hand into her pocket and bringing out a plastic bag which held a piece of paper. "Well, we already know, right? The Dark Nebula is responsible for capturing my sister!"

Her voice went high on the end, eyebrows furrowed.

Timon outstretched his hand towards the plastic bag, which, from what I could see, had a purple, jagged symbol near the edge.

"I brought the note I spoke to Tess about," as she said my name, her blue-eyed gaze flashed towards my face, but I kept my hands clasped behind my back and said nothing. 

Calmly, my boss retracted the note from the bag, and skimmed over it with cold eyes before laying it flat on the worn desk nearby. 

"Why are you here, Riyui? I'm assuming that you didn't just come here to give us this piece of evidence, no? There must be another reason."

"Yes, sir," she sighed. "I was under the impression that I should come to you guys if anything strange happened. Dark Nebula...they're planning on using my sister to get to me..."

"Why?" Timon sent me a look as I spoke out of turn, but, ignoring it, I pressed Riyui with a series of questions. "Why did they capture Saki in the first place? Is there any connection between you guys and the Dark Nebula? What-"

By holding up a hand, she cut me off mid-sentence. "Another thing I find strange is...they're hinting at some sort of...betrayal thing. I heard some banging in my room this afternoon, and when I opened up my door, they was some kind of stain on the floor and grease marks along the wall." 

"...that's creepy."

"I know," she sighed, the movement causing her long bangs taht were on either side of her face to quiver. "So I came here. And...one more thing."

She produced another sheet of paper from her black-and-white (along with a little red) jacket, handing it towards Timon. My boss took it, inspected it, then set it down next to the first one.

"A warning..." he murmured. I peered over his shoulder to look at what he was talking about.

'WE'RE COMING'.

The words were written in a jagged, hasty script. Narrowing my eyes, I stared hard at the words to figure out any other meaning. 

"Why would...what's his name, Mister Doijuin? Why would he warn Riyui in advance?"

"Doji," Timon Rehn corrected. "Perhaps it's to demonstrate that no matter what Riyui does, if she knows it in advance or not, she is powerless against him."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Riyui bristle before pinching her nose and muttering something under her breath, but the fire had been alit in her eyes. "Son of a gun," she mumbled around her hand. 

"Alright, so Riyui can just stay here."

His eyes gleamed and a shiver ran down my spine as he looked over at me, that strange smile of his curving his lips. "Ah, but Tess, our enemy is right there. I hope you enjoy going undercover as someone else."